When Faith Is Tested

Friends, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. I think it's fair to say that 2020 has been quite the year of a test of faith. Right? We've already seen pandemics and apocolyspses so far. And boy, there's still a lot to come isn't there? Miss Tara was just talking about the beginning of school and how different it will be. Our teachers have been putting in a lot of work. And I'm sure teachers all around the world are thinking, boy am I in for it right now. I'm sure our students are thinking, do I have to wear a mask all day? Holy cow. And of course right now if you're looking around the world or watching the news we've seen riots and protests and murders and shootings. We see fires out west. We see hurricanes down south. We see hurricanes in Iowa even. This has been quite the test of faith this year. And to top it all off somebody decided to have an election this year.

I think the remainder of 2020 is going to continue to be quite the test of faith. I think it's easy for us as Christians to start to ask the question. Okay, Hold on a second. If we have a good God, why doesn't he just overthrow evil? Why doesn't he just wipe away suffering and just get rid of it?

Well the Apostle Peter asked the same question. We heard that in the Gospel, lets hear it again. It says from that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed.

And on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and said to him and rebuked him saying, far be it from you Lord this shall never happen to you.

But you know you're feeling pretty confident with yourself when you go and rebuke Jesus, right?

Jesus responds to Peter if anyone would come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

What Jesus just gave Peter was a paradox. And the Paradox goes like this. You lose everything by trying to gain the world, but you gain the World by losing everything.

How do we as Christians handle tests of faith? Let's look at that first side of the Paradox. The first side of the Paradox that says you lose everything by trying to gain the world. When faith is tested, you and I tend to respond like Peter. When Faith is tested, we want God to do things our way. I don't know about you, but I prayed that 2021 would come for about the last three or four months, right. Just three months of 2020 and we'll just go straight to the next year. We want things to go our way, don't we? And that's what Peter wanted. Peter wanted Jesus to be the undying Power King. He wanted Jesus to continue preaching and teaching and healing and doing Miracles. He wanted Jesus to set up this glorious world government with Jesus as the king. But friends Peter has a flawed theology. Because Peter would say that if God really is God, then he would choose to work in the world and a way that does not bring suffering and death. Peter doesn't like the idea of a messiah who dies. Peter wants God to do things his way. He says no Jesus you can't die because I don't like the idea of what that means for me.

So, how did Jesus respond? Get behind me Satan! You know you're having a bad day when Jesus calls you Satan. Get behind me Satan you are a hindrance to me for you or not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. Friends Peter's way is satanic. You heard it from Jesus own mouth. The way of Peter is satanic. It is the way of power and success. It is the way of the world filled with violent men and sinful hearts. And when faith is tested, we seek power and success. It's that dark part of our hearts that craves that we have more. It's that dark part of our hearts that has an attitude that says, you know what, the world should belong to me.

Whenever our faith is tested, we have a sinful tendency to wish that we had more power, to crave more power so that things go our way. And then we give into the way of the world, and we pit ourselves against others. We desire to be in charge. We act in criticism towards those we love. We play the comparison game. We try to one up each other and our hearts get filled with ambition.

Christians might desire power and control even for Good Intentions. I'm sure that Peter was well-intentioned when he didn't want Jesus to die. I mean, who wants Jesus to die, right?

Peter had good intentions, but he responded the wrong way to the test of faith. The way he wanted to react was not the way of Jesus, but of the devil. You know what they say about the road to hell right? The road to hell is paved with what?... good intentions. Good intentions don't mean that you automatically have holy reactions.

So for us, maybe this year as we speak about the test of faith that we're looking at with the election. What this might mean for us as Christians is that, pray as we might, we may not get a Godly president. Even if we have good intentions. Maybe the way of God is to suffer and to have his people suffer for a little bit.

Friends, that's the way of God. It's his way. And Satan's advice would be this. No no no, dear Christians spare yourself the trouble of bearing the cross. When fate gets tested, gain power to gain the world.

Seizing power and control ultimately results in the loss of faith and losing everything for eternity. I think about it this way if you can gain enough power to gain control of the world then what do you need Jesus for?

Trying to gain the world with power is a faith killing endeavor. It's a lost cause and you will destroy your faith for nothing.

So let's look at the other side of the paradox.

You gain the World by losing everything?

The Christian, when their faith is tested responds by taking up their cross. So instead of demanding that God do things my way. We let God do things his way. And friends the way of God is mysterious. Why? What does it entail? Suffering and death.

But notice, that his way is through the cross. Notice what Jesus gains through suffering and death. Friends, He gains the world. He rules the world. Jesus rules the world by suffering for it. Jesus rules the world by being the willing victim of its violence. Jesus rules the world by paying for all of its sins with his own blood. And we are called as Christians to look at the darkness in our own hearts that have the desires, the cravings for power and control over others and we as Christians are called to deny ourselves. To deny that desire as something that Jesus died to forgive. Denying yourself means letting go of the idea that God's way of working will conform to your idea of success and Glory.

We let go. We let God define the way that works. We let God do what he wants in the world knowing that he is the one in charge. And so we do the same as Jesus, we take up our cross and we follow Jesus. And when our faith is tested we seek service and humility instead of power and control. So instead of the attitude that says, you know what this world should belong to me. I got some good ideas. And by the way, I'm pretty good looking too. The world should just pay attention to me.

Instead of that way of thinking, we think with an attitude that says, you know what this world does not belong to me. This world belongs to God. I don't need power in the world to take over the world because you know what? I have power to serve the world and that's enough. And so we serve the world by not building up ourselves for our own good. But we serve the world for its own good. We Rule the World by suffering as its servants. Taking up your cross means that you live everyday by relinquishing control to God, even though it means suffering. And discipleship friends, will mean suffering. If you're not suffering as a disciple of Jesus it might be time for a heart check. Because being a disciple of Jesus means suffering because... news flash, you live in an evil world and how are we as Christians supposed to respond to evil? With good!

Which means that the world is getting all of your good and what are you going to do in the world all of its evil? Disciples suffer for the world. And that's God way of working in a rebellious World by repaying evil with good.

And we as Christians are willing to suffer when we go through tests of our faith. We go into them boldly. Because you know what? As Christians, we also know the end of the story. We know what's going to happen and we know that power grabs don't do you any lasting good because we know that ultimately on that last day, I all worldly power will crumble.

Power isn't good for anything because it will all crumble at the feet of Jesus. And that's why we as Christians lose everything. We lose everything because when you have lost everything, what do you have left? Jesus!

And Jesus is everything.

Christians know that suffering and the Cross isn't the end. Did you catch what Peter missed? Peter started rebuking Jesus before he even had time to think about what Jesus said. Because Jesus said alright disciples, guess what? I'm to go to Jerusalem. I'm going to suffer and I'm going to die. And then already Peter is feeling that test of faith and he starts correcting Jesus. He starts rebuking him, but he misses the next line. Because what did Jesus say next? And on the third day, I will rise.

See, we look forward to gaining the world and the new creation. Because Jesus bore the cross only to rise again and gain the whole world on Easter. We know the end of the story. And so we take up our cross, with smiles on our face and we follow Jesus because we know what's on the other side. Take up your cross and follow him. In Jesus name Amen.